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^m Conbitions of ^caa: 




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DISCOURSE 




DELIVERED IN THE WEST CHUECH, 






En fHtmotj of 






DAA^ID KIMBALL HOBAUT, 


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June 14, 1863. 

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BY C. A. BARTOL, 








BOSTON: 


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WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 

245, Washington Stbeet. 

1863. 




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"-— - - - - ... .... 





Conbitions of '||cikc: 



DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED IN THE WEST CHURCH, 



En fHcmorp of 



DAYID KIMBALL HOBAUT, 



June 14, 1863. 



BY C. A. BARTOL. 



BOSTON: 
WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 

245, Washington Stkket. 
18G3. 



Esis 
.y 
4trfre 



BOSTON : 

PRINTKn ISY .lOHN WILSON AND SON, 
C, Watku Stki;ht. 



61&08 
'05 



DISCOURSE. 



" Conditions of Peace." — Luke xiv. 32. 

" Peace ! " How few words fall ou the ear so sweetly ! 
Peace was the song of angels ; peace is the benediction 
of God ; peace is the perfection of the soul ; peace is 
the prosperity of the State ; peace is heaven, and peace 
on earth oiu- daily prayer. All war is by many pro- 
noimced unchristian; but there never teas a had peace, 
cried a good man in horror at the woes of confhct now 
in our land. Military as is the popular resolution, 
there is among us a peace-partj', mth one wmg of sen- 
timent moving quietly, and another of policy flapping 
noisily ; so that the bodj- revolves witliout going for- 
ward. 

For peace, vnih. all its beauty for lofty soids, follow- 
ers of Jesus of every name and age, is not a principle, 
as peace-men would have it, but a result. It is not an 
absolute grace or vu-tue, like love, piety, or veracit)', 
but has conditions profomider than itself. It is a build- 
ing, whose foimdation must be looked to. It cannot be 



4 

sufcly reared on the quick-sand of lies, or the rubble- 
stone of compromise. Planted so, it sinks in ruin, or 
falls ^\'ith a crash, Uke the carelessly raised house on 
the shore, or Ul-supported miU by the stream. Justice 
and humanity are pledges of peace ; but, where these 
have been broken, war, which seems only the opposite 
and destroyer of peace, becomes one of its essential 
means, opening the way to its siu'e establishment for 
generations to come. The medals of Cromwell, after his 
second investiture, bore the inscription, Pax qiian'itur 
hello, " The quest of peace is by war." When cannon 
have been christened j^eace-^iakers, the apparent ii-ony 
has contained a serious sense. Many a warrior, like 
oiu" own "NVashmgton, has fought for the real and abid- 
ing peace, which, after long, fretfiU, consuming contro- 
versies of passion and angry Avords, at length only out 
of the smoke of battle has been secured. Massachu- 
setts, accorduig to the inscription on her shield, still 
seeks Avith the sword to rest imder liberty. 

But what, then, shall we do with Chiistiunity, that 
peaceful kingdom of God, in the world, which om* Lord 
came to foimd 1 Set it aside for the time, till our quar- 
rels are over] No: our religion, imiversaUy true to 
human natiu"e, includes war and peace alike in its 
compass. " Fu"st pure, then peaceable," and " the 
peaceable fruit of righteousness," are its style. Jesus 
directs liis disciples, in certain circumstances, to sell 
then- coat, if no otherwise, by no possibility in the 



empty purse of extreme poverty, they coiild find 
money to buy a sword. When persons, then, hstenmg 
Avith siu-prise to \indications from the pulpit of war, 
even the present war for the country, ejaculate the 
question, " J.re you not a'minister of peace and of the 
Prince of peace ? " for one, I answer. Indeed I am. 
No man deprecated more earnestly, or held back 
harder from the necessity of strife ; but, if I am a min- 
ister of peace, still more I am a minister of truth. If 
Jesus Christ is the prince of peace, stiU more he is the 
king of dut}', and preacher of righteousness : he affiiins 
that he came not to biiag peace on earth, though the 
angels sang it over his cradle, but division rather, and 
a sword, till his teachings were accepted, and wherever 
his precepts were not obeyed. Therefore, as the effort 
of this nation, and every loyal citizen m its limits, is, by 
the law of right, for a union and freedom which can- 
not be rescued from intestine foes save by a contest 
with arms, the contest is as Chiistian and holy as it is 
patriotic and necessary. In so maiutaiuiug it, I am 
■\Adthin the bounds of my office, not resigning my com- 
mission, or disowning the stress of my ordination-vows. 
Since I began to think, I never held opinions inconsist- 
ent with my present mode of address. 

The position, Avhich it is my pri\dlege with your 
favor to occupy, is the very last where one should 
shrmk from fidelity to his country ; for here, if any- 
where, the United States were bom. Long before the 



American Revolution, one Lord's Day naoruin<^ in June, 
1766, as he was lying in his bed, thinking of the commu- 
nion of the churches, Jonathan ISIayhew, of this " West 
Church," thought, moreover, " of the great use and im- 
2iortance of a communion of the Colonies." From this 
conception, ere the day had come of concessions to 
slavery, the nation as an uifant was brought forth. 
What a traitor, recreant to his foremnners' dignity 
and oiu* whole origin, would he be, who should here, 
in a thought, sacrifice the nation of the United States 
to that demand of seceders, so like the pretended 
mother's ^vith the Uving child at the judgment of Solo- 
mon, to have it destroyed in being cut apart ! Brethren 
and sisters, I am no innovat(n- : I claim no originality. 
I stand m the old paths : I exhort you to be worthy of 
your ancient renown. I assiu'e you, this societ}% with 
its pastorate, would abjure the traditions that are its 
breath, and hold the circulation of its very life, if it 
gave up the integrity of the Commonwealth, for which 
its first teachers and members hazarded all, to a sup- 
posed peace of disunion, to the lure of an ephemeral 
tranquillity, smooth on the outside, "while rank disease 
is mming all withm." Ecclesiastical and political ty- 
ranny was here overthroA\Ta! Shall ^vc, of aU men, not 
meet it, whenever it shows its horrid crest \ If an op- 
pressive despotism in our borders cannot be put down 
without the du-c resort of a civil war, then welcome 
the civU war, out of which alone, for oiu" posterity, a 



happy order, like the flower from the nettle, can 
grow ! 

Not for peace, then, but for the conditions of peace, 
must we inquu'e. Old Jeremiah can tell us, they who 
say, " Peace, peace, when there is no peace," heal 
slightly the hurt of the daughter of my people. What 
signifies to shout for peace, — peace at all events, and 
on any terms, — peace as an end, instead of foithful- 
ness, — an ill-considered and unprincipled peace, 
which is no jJeace, because it would bear in its own 
bosom the fiery seeds of more fiercely outbiu'sting 
and immeasiu'able. war] An agreement of peace, con- 
ceding the points at issue for which we strive, would 
be a superficial cure uideed. It would be for us like 
those ill-set limbs, which, on account of their crooked 
and xmserviceable shape, threatening perpetual lame- 
ness, the siu'geon has to break with violence that he 
may set them again. It would be skinning over ulcer 
and plague-spot, to let them penetrate to the vital or- 
gans, and rot the very bones. It would be the part, 
not of good physicians, but of poisoners m the garb of 
doctors, and of assassins for operators ; or, if a nation 
cannot be slaia outright by any set of men, of tempters 
of it to suicide. Sicken and revolt, then, as our heart 
must, at the sight, so long before oiu- eyes, of brothers' 
blood shed by brothers' hands ; sigh and pray as we 
should for the blessing of a just peace in all our 
bounds, — the contest must go on till its objects are 



secured in casting off the arbitrary claims of those who 
provoked it, and liberating this Western Republic for 
the career its founders projected after the heavenly 
design. 

The mdispensablencss of the struggle will be CAidcnt 
to all who have studied the published plans of South- 
ern dommation, which, to get bulwarks of defence to 
all ages of the system of human bondage, soar to a 
pitch leaving far behind the assumptions of Enropean 
monarchies, — the rule of aristocratic Britam, autocratic 
Russia, or imperial France. These plans, by the press 
in papers widely cuxulating through the Slave States, 
are avowed with a lordly frankness, and open denim- 
ciation of free institutions, free thought, free pulpits, 
and free schools, at which the blood of Northern read- 
ers must fii'st rim cold Avith alarm, and then indig- 
nantly boil. As we have an unavoidable work of fight 
to do, let us do it thoroughly while we are about it, 
and not leave a worse job for our descendants ! 

Besides, was there ever a government, forced into 
war by the sins of men or sent by the bidding of God, 
more worthy of a rally to its support? Are you 
shocked and aghast at all war ? I will be shocked and 
aghast with you at the wicked causes and ill motives 
by which all war is in a measure prompted ; but this 
is not, on oiu* part, a war for empne or worldly gain. 
No ambitious aspirant leads hence mercenaiy ti'oops. 
No accusation could be more gross, even to ridicule, 



than the Southern branding for a tyrant of our Presi- 
dent and Commander-in-chief. The lowly Baptist said 
he was a voice in the wilderness. Never was a magis- 
trate more the voice, the index, the obedient servant, as 
he is the elective minister, of the people he represents. 
Confederate robbery, murder, and conscription, from 
which poor hunted whites hide in under-ground huts, 
must have a forehead of brass, mdeed, to talk of " Lin- 
cohi's tyramiy," when all the government we have rises 
but like a vessel on the popular tide, and, if sometimes 
perhaps it makes mistakes, speedily retreats with 
the sinking wave, and allows, to the very brink of self- 
preservation, the liberty even of disloyal speech and 
print. God's own stirring of the mstincts of freedom 
and equal rights never availed so much m the heart 
of a community to sustain a conflict before. We can- 
not get over our wonder at the manly self-devotion of 
our youth, till we understand it as a divine inspiration, 
whose breeze has blown tlnough their souls. Every 
thing in the behavior of our troops, proving this spi- 
ritual quality, tlu'ills the soul with dehght ; for it goes 
to the heart of our hope, and is the prediction of our 
triumph. I therefore solcnmly congratulate you as 
fcllow-comitrymen on whatever is high in the morals 
of our army ; on all the purity, sobriety, and reverence 
which officer or recruit has witnessed in his com- 
panions, or upheld in himself. The ark we bear is 
holy : nothing is requisite but that it be carried in 



10 

clean hands. If, like that of old, it has halted on the 
way, the reason is in some unsanctified touch. Lift it 
in the fear of God, in the love of man, and it will not 
stop short of the city of oiu' redemption, and the peace 
whose conditions we ask and observe. 

Such refiections mingle with and move our welcome 
back to Boston of that forty-foiu'th regiment, though 
with a hundred of theh number missmg, which we 
recognize as contaming of leaders and men more from 
this parish than any beside m the ser\ice. I will not 
say it has exceeded all other regiments in w4iat it has 
accomplished : it makes for itself no such exaggerated 
and presumptuous claim. Modestly it puts itself be- 
side the patriotic in every corps and division of the 
army ; but certainly no band has gone forth or re- 
tui'ned with more signal testimonies of affection and 
respect. Some have asked, "Wherefore demonstrations 
so la\ish in this caseV Now that these friends of ours 
are no longer as men putting on the harness, but have 
all been under fire ; with unfaltering front have met 
the enemy at Rawle's Mills, at Kinston and Golds- 
borough and Whitehall and "Washington, N.C.; mai-ch- 
ing on one occasion seventy-five miles in three dajs ; 
and, though not decimated in battle, have yet left 
brave comrades not a few behind them for resurrection 
from Southern graves, — we may say, the tributes to 
them are not all flattery or friendship, or the motion 
of kmch-cd blood. They have not only shown that 



11 

they could fight, without fhiiching from any danger, 
but presented a smgular combmation of gravity and a 
temper of good cheer in all their deportment. They 
have sung thek religious songs in camp, in the face of 
some scorn from other quarters. No arrests for the 
drunkenness, too common among soldiers as weU as 
civihans, have in their ranks been required : not a 
case of mtoxication among them has theii- commander 
kno^^^l smce they reached Newbern. They have been 
led to set a guard on then* tongues agamst that profan- 
ity, which, in one of oiu- army-tracts, is well entitled " an 
enemy within the lines." I am personally cognizant 
of a purifying iniiuence to many issuing from this very 
church, that has had among them its missionaries and 
representatives in the shape of officers and soldiers. 
Urgent in their tasks, and steady at their posts, they 
have largely added to courage the rarer trait of self- 
control. With the banners, which they have a right 
to tling to the winds hi the safety of home, because 
they never lowered them to the foe, but bore them as 
proudly m North Carolina as m Massachusetts, they 
bring back vktues which outshine the emblazoned stars 
and stripes, and shall last when all flags of earthly 
glory must be wrapped together, and laid in the dust. 
Of our own boys I must be permitted particularly 
to speak. In this noble regiment, I challenge evidence 
that any have shown a finer demeanor than the seven 
from these aisles of our worship ; nor do I expect to 



12 



learn that an equal number, from M'hatevcr precinct, 
East or West, have exceeded in then* bearing and ex- 
ample the scores of heroic and martyr-soiils, since the 
internecine strife began, furnished fi;om the seats we 
frequent, to the exigency and agony of the hour. The 
time touches us indeed ! The blood-stains caiuiot be 
taken off from this portal or yonder thi'esholds, more 
than from the posts of the ancient Hebrew doors. In 
a different way, they are signs of our as well as the 
Hebrew deliverance. We have offered our ample 
share to the expiation of the general sin, as we have 
waited, through these long sad years of our sum- 
mons, patiently standmg at the judgment-seat of God. 
Irmocence for guilt, the law of the Saviour's sufferings, 
has been greatly the illustration of our pains. Well 
might the pious hands of some of you, m memorial, 
present the a'oss for a signal to that tifty-foiu-th co- 
lored regiment, which lately went out from oiu- streets ; 
for lambs, as imspottcd as can be any offsprmg of 
human nature, have gone hence, as sacrifices, to a fate 
of anguish not diverse from that of the tree to which 
was nailed the Lamb of God. They have not gone in 
hatred or wrath, more than he whose followers they 
were ; nor did we, whose pangs m their dying were 
greater than theh own, send them in vengeance, but 
for God's honor and human weal in the purifpng and 
salvation of the land. Our Pilgrim shes, whom history 
has exalted among the Father's chikhen and his Son's 



13 



disciples, and death long ago took to then- gloiy, are 
content with the spectacle they from on high behold. 
Those of oiu' ancestors on these coasts, who were also 
oiu' predecessors in this place, are satisfied with us. 
My friends, they comprehend your continuance of their 
line ; they approve yoiu' patience under thick and 
manifold griefs ; they applaud your constant and un- 
discouraged zeal ; they bend in sympathy with your 
heart-renduig pangs ; in whispers louder than any 
A'oice, breathing comfort and ecstasy to the soul, they 
cheer you on. The watching and expending of their 
sons, the industry and impulse of theh daughters, 
touch theu" angehc faces to smiles, whose warmth you 
mwardly feel beyond the beams of the sun. Flames 
of light and love as they are, yet then eyes brighten 
at youi- contributions from a better treasury than of 
silver and gold. Nothing which you have given will 
they overlook : least of all do they forget the personal 
devotion, endiuance of hardship, peril, hunger and 
thkst in the time of scant supply ; the weary mai'ches 
and night-^dgUs ; the gory wounds and broken limbs, 
in which the still embedded bullet, though of coarse 
lead, is a gem which no pearl or diamond, bracelet or 
shining chcle, on the neck or arm of beauty, can 
match ; wath, alas ! how many dear and noble lives, of 
which we may say, " Precious shall then- blood be in 
His sight ! " I am grieved, I am proud and glad, with 
you who hear me. We have not been slack : we have 



14 



swept our temple of the yoiuig ; we have transferred 
from the altar of the sanctuary to the altfir of the coun- 
try gifts costly enough to make of sanctuary and coun- 
try one indivisible shrine for ever of the Most High. It 
is a custom in some, foreign regions to rededicate 
chm-ches. This old structure of om-s we have rededi- 
cated to God in a vital outpourmg from throbbuig 
veins of value beyond the prayers and songs, how- 
ever sincere and fervent, which, half a centiu-y ago, 
hallowed its space to his praise. We have dedicated 
it with tears and sobs following upon copious drops of 
a deeper current. "Will he not accept the consecra- 
tion, past, present, or yet to be made ? Will he not 
build us up into flourishing without end, spite of all 
the vacancies of absence and all the gaps of death ? 
Indeed he Avill ; for it is as true of societies as of indi- 
viduals, " He that loseth his life for my sake shall 
find it." 

For verily, war, to oiu" chilch-en so strange a fimc- 
tion, \\o do not wage for its own sake. AVe are after 
conditions of peace, fair and lasting, which the mmd 
of man can accept, and God ^^ill bless. For this rea- 
son alone, ours is a humane and providential war. To 
any one's amazement that an ambassador of the gospel 
of peace and mercy can give it his sanction and stimu- 
lus, I plead in reply its sacred character. Whoever may 
remark on my reciurrence to the theme, I answer, — 
I but utter that for which others from oiu: midst have 



15 



died. The least I can do is to speak the thing for 
which they bleed. Pardon my earnestness ! Indeed, 
over their tombs, fresh with recollections of then- fall- 
ing in the field, their pming in the hospital, and their 
expiring far from mothers' hands, fathers' blessings, 
sisters' tones, and brothers' fiirewells, jou wiU not only 
forgive, but respond to, aU my advocacy of the cause to 
which they went religiously sworn. It was new and 
unfamiliar Avork: they did not want to fight. The 
occasion constrained them ; nay, the call, too, which 
they heard m then breast. 

They have given their own selves. There was one, 
a son and brother of fellow-worshippers among us 
highly esteemed, who landed not at the wharf in Bos- 
ton last Wednesday, amid greetmgs and waving colors, 
Avith the comrades he accompanied nearly a year ago. 
But, though his personal presence is not visibly here, 
beside his there is no memory more spotless. No spirit 
more innocent and devoted than that of David Kim- 
ball Hobart rises from the wide sepulchre which this 
dreadfid slaughter daily fills. I pray you to excuse 
my expression. His spirit rises not from the sepul- 
chre into which it never descended. The souls of our 
dear ones vanished have no interment. "With the 
ground they have less to do in any way than the sur- 
vivors who bury theii- mortal remains. His blessed 
shade is among those, a great company, that come 
down in visits to our hearts from the skies. " If you 



16 



would opcu a little the eyes of yom- love," writes a 
soldier to his spiiitual father, Robert Collyer, in Chi- 
cago, " you would see me standing by your side." K 
we would open the eyes of our love, should we uot 
behold our beloved, though they have paid early, and 
it might seem untimely, the debt of natui'e, not se- 
vered from us, but close by? 

In affording a hint or line of Ilobart's earthly bio- 
grajihy, I feel that the mmds of all his acquaintance 
will be more jjossessed with, the present and progress- 
ive hfe of one, always growmg m knowledge and 
honor, than with any bygone details. He was born in 
Boston in 1835, was a graduate of the High School at 
sixteen years of age, and m mercantile employment 
tiU he was twenty-two ; up to which time he had been 
connected with the Smiday school of the Twelfth Con- 
gregational Society, whose revered minister uiforms 
me of his conduct as unblemished and exemplary in 
every respect. He was naturally inchned to cultivate 
intellectual tastes ; and was, from its foundation, a 
member of the Franklin Literary Association ; thi*ee 
others of which — Shurtleff, llopkmson, and Brooks 
— joined the army, all of them, like him, at the cost 
of thch- lives. At the age of twenty-two, with the aid 
of his old employers, Alexander Strong and Company, 
Hobart proceeded to the West to estabhsh himself m 
the business to which he had been educated. He 
chose for his residence the city of M'Gregor, lo., 



17 



on the westerly bank of the ISIississippi River, oppo- 
site to Praiiie du Chien ; of which he was soon 
elected alderman, and then mayor. After five years, 
changes m affau's brought him back mto relations, in 
Boston, with his former business friends. While he 
was a universal favorite in his distant home, separation 
had only increased his love for friends in the place of 
his birth. Little childi'en, as one, at least, now Usten- 
ing to me well knows, were always dear to him. He 
had, what goes along naturally with this fondness, a 
coiu'age unable to conceive of fear ; while the love as 
of a little child for his own mother attended him, and 
manifested itself in childlike tokens, into his manhood. 
He could lay his head to the last in the lap where he 
laid it from the fii'st. But affection withheld him not 
from dut)'. TeUing his sister that she had three bro- 
thers, and he had concluded, with that last call for 
men, that one of them ought to go, he enlisted in 
Company G with Capt. Himt. He might elsewhere 
have had a commission, which had been offered him ; 
yet he chose his companions, and thought not of rank, 
but of service. 

He was not suffered, however, to remain the com- 
mon soldier he had decided to be. Shortly, at the 
camp in Readville, he was made fourth, and, on reach- 
ing North Carohnai( first corporal ; subsequently pro- 
moted to be orderly or first sergeant, the grade next 
to lieutenant ; and no doubt his distinction would 

3 



18 



have nm on •with equal rapidit)* into the higher de- 
grees, but for the speedy termination of all his tasks 
below. On jNIarch the 3()th, a day or two before 
Washington in North Caroliaa was besieged by the 
rebels, companies A and G, of the Massachusetts 
Forty-fouith, were sent out to make a reconnoissance 
into the enemy's coimtry ; and he was ordered to lead 
a party of six, who should keep two hundred yards in 
advance of the main force. While marching, they 
were fu-ed upon from an abattis, which, not rashly, but 
with mihtary wariness, they were approaching. Ho- 
bart, with two others, fell; and, as the volley proved the 
presence of overpowering odds, the rest of the party 
were compelled to retu'e, leaving the three on the 
ground. About half an hoiu" after, they were taken 
up by the rebels, and carried to the Confederate hos- 
pital at Greenville. The sergeant's wound was thi-ougli 
the breast, the ball commg out back of the shoulder. 
lie was not neglected, but mercifully considered with 
medical and social attentions ; the women of the 
neighborhood showing a daily interest in his com- 
fort. On the 8th of April, he was removed to the 
Confederate hospital at Wilson, N.C. There, too, he 
was not only cared for, but cherished. We hear so 
many accomits of cruelty to prisoners, that it has 
given me great pleasure to be mformed of the pecu- 
liar kmdness, in every respect, of the treatment ex- 
tended to liim. The siu'geon's dealing with his case 



19 



was alike gentle and frank. He begged hini not to 
weary himself with readhig, as there were those in the 
hospital who would be happy to read to him. In his 
time of need, he saw nothmg but the manhood of the 
Southern heart, and received the inu'sing which is 
the glory of womanliood aU over the world. The 
ministers of the town, as well as the regular chaplain, 
came ; and laches brought frequent gifts of flowers. 
Ah ! we shall be able to live with those people, after 
aU ! Let us have no hostile feeling toward them, but 
hail every sign of qualities proving that Hve mth them 
we can. Live with them, if we succeed, when they 
are piu'ged and wc are piu'ged, we must; and how 
gladly we shall ! God bless them m every prophecy 
of a genial future fellowship Avhich then- own conduct 
makes ! Nothing but a Union feeling, a love of coun- 
try, a sentiment of humanity and universal fraternity 
at the bottom of the heart, could move to such actions ; 
which are themselves a promise, clear as the crimson 
streak m the east of a dawn to bring on a blessed day, 
that shall overarch the land, and embrace all its chil- 
dren in a luminous good understanduig of common 
vision and unbounded joy. What hinders tliis splen- 
did breaking light but the dark system, hke night to 
pass away? 

For two days after he was shot, Hobart suffered 
much ; then his jjains wlioUy ceased. It has wet with 
joy the eyes of those who lament him, to be told, not 



20 



only of his patience, but of the bright, benevolent, 
and overflomng good humor vnth which his confine- 
ment was borne. Death he can hardly be said to 
have tasted ; for on the l-tth of April, as he was in 
the act of talcing from the female attendant a plate of 
toast for his breakfast, he softly laid back his head, and, 
as in a moment, expired. Only his wondcifidly Aigor- 
ous constitution kept life in his frame so long ; and 
the physician expressed his wonder that he was not 
killed at once by the bullet that pierced his lungs. 
He had, let us thankfully acknowledge it, the soldierly 
handhng which even enemies owe to the corse of a 
brave man. He was clad in his uniform, laid in a cof- 
fin, and what belonged to earth or could be mortal of 
him put away under the sod in the hospital buiying- 
gi'ound; and a board, bearing his name, set at the head 
of his grave. 

" A man," says the old philosopher, " cannot be 
hid ; " and something of the remarkable regai'd paid 
him may be due to the admuable traits which coidd 
not be concealed from strangere, while they so pro- 
foimdly impressed his friends. Capt. Iliuit warndy 
attests his bravery, generosity, nobiHtj', and truth ; and 
a committee of his company, — from which he alone 
was lost in battle, although fom- have sunk under dis- 
ease, — ^^■ith unaffected yet touching smcerity of emo- 
tion, commuiucate their unanimous grief at their 
bereavement, and theu" pride in the memory of a man 



21 

who stood the proof in cu'cumstances where there 
could be no " gloss or deception ; " forward at his sta- 
tion, in simple fidelity to the command of his supe- 
rior and of the Supreme, boldly facmg death. 

Such an offering again we have been called to 
make. Am I wrong in observing a di^dne piu'pose 
to select from the flock the immacidate for the sacri- 
fice in that great shedding of blood, without which, 
we read, there is no remission? Am I not right in 
beUeving, that, from such examples, a holy contagion 
of Christian patriotism, of more benefit than the 
longest life, will spread imquenched, to inflame Avith- 
out ceasing other souls ? Of this I am sm-e, that no 
wish to gratify kindred or please myself, but rather to 
commend a shining pattern to imitation for the gene- 
ral good, chiefly moves my commemoration. My tri- 
bute has not been paid before, because weeks passed 
away ere we knew his immortal part had floA\Ti. We 
went not to yonder house, we came not with official 
honors or mihtary display, usual in sxich cases, to this 
public temple, for the funeral rites of our brother. 
No prayers did Proridence permit us to say over his 
hearse. His courage ui the field where he sank, his 
patience on the bed where he lay, his resignation to 
die, as he had Uved, in the way of his duty, graced, bet- 
ter than any ceremony or woven shi-oud, liis obsequies. 
No hands, however wilhng, could fit him for his grave 
as he had prepared himself. His own deeds, longer 



22 

than could marble headstone or engraved epitaph, 
shall pi'eserve the memory of a man, pure as he was 
loving, cheerful as he was temperate, kindly to all 
about him, and tender to the absent, whom ho would 
never, without remonstrance, allow to be referred to 
uncharitably ; o^Miing the heavenly Father, while he 
gave only pleasure with his piety to his earthly pa- 
rents, and often eloquent with the touching and 
persuasive charm of his lips in behalf of the cause 
for which he siuTendered his life. But his sm-render 
was only translation of being. Dnect commmiication 
had his soul with heaven ; and it sought from above 
communion with those it prized on earth, Avhilc, by 
reason of interrupted mtercoiu'se, we were ignorant 
he had breathed his last. To you, who moiun him, 
was he ever so near as now ? Let us all ha\e gracious 
thoughts of him who was gracious to whomsoever he 
knew. 

I Ikuc spoken of conditions of peace. Suffering, 
death, and grief are among the conditions we are 
obliged to fulfil. Move of that war, Avhich, it is said, 
has hardly left a fence in Eastern Virginia, is a condi- 
tion. I know how the war is by some made a mark 
of the national degeneracy. Not so : it sprang from 
the rise of moral ideas to check the national sins. 
There woidd have been no war but for these ideas 
against these sms ; but there would, from the extend- 
ing sins, have been corruption and death of this people 



23 



in all the original aims and characteristics of its proper 
constitution. Therefore, thank God that the offended 
conscience of the age rose against the customs which 
would have ended in the common decay ! 

As the war came on the condition of a great iniquity, 
on condition of equity alone peace will come. The 
pohticians told us, indeed, om- corniption could go on 
without dissolving the State, or doing any political 
harm ; but God hath destroyed the wisdom of the 
wise, and brought to nothuig the vmderstanding of 
the prudent. War itself is but one of the ministers 
of his cabinet, despatched on a mission to chastise and 
sanctify us. We talk as if the conditions of peace 
were a matter for us or oiu' statesmen to settle. But 
the Almightj' Judge, who has sent the angel of battle, 
has a word to say, before, ^^•ith a concluded errand, that 
angel is called back. We shall have peace when we 
have righteousness. We shall have peace when we 
are cleansed of covetousness and oiu" heretofore insane 
pm-suit of material good. We shall have peace when 
we discard aU practice of sensuality and fraud. We 
shall have peace when the South resigns its aristocra- 
tic and royal pretensions, and tears up that root of 
slavery from which they grow. We shall have peace 
when the North, East, and West shall have banished 
every shadow of complicity with oppression for the 
sake of gain, and disgorged, in the bitter contention, 
every dollar of ungodly wealth which falsehood or 



24 



robbery has acquired. "WTicn a h-ue relation shall 
subsist of the States to one another, of all to the 
Federal GoAcrnment, and of the white to the colored 
race, Ave sh;dl have peace, Avhich no earthquake of 
social convulsion can distiu'b. 

For such conditions of peace, let us fight and labor ; 
let us watch and pray ; let us besiege with appeals our 
rulers and leaders ; let us om-selves Hve, or be ready to 
die ; let us be grateful to the surviAong among our 
hosts, and not deplore the dead, by whom these terms 
have been created or subserved ; nor let the fame of 
the humblest private, who has done aught to hasten 
or Avin them, be obscm-ed by the lustre of great names, 
of secretaries or generals, flying so contmually, as me- 
teors, through the air. Let our democracy mean no 
longer human Avilfuhiess, but divine gOA'emmcnt. Let 
it mean, not doing AAdth oiu"selves and om* feUow- 
creatures as we please, but as our Maker and Inspii'er 
commands. Let his fatherlincss make our fraternity. 
Then the angels' song at Bethlehem shall have a 
sweet and perfect though distant echo, and the bene- 
diction, of the peace of God, be received. 



'*!o 



NOTE. 



A FEW words are here added to give a livelier touch to 
the portraiture of Hobart, or bring out other features of 
his character. The singular consistency of the tributes 
paid to him shows the reality and transparency of all his 
traits. I have referred to the letter of Capt. Hunt, who, 
after remarking on his moral qualities, finds reason for 
comfort in the " attention paid him during his sickness ; 
and that his last sleep will be as undisturbed in the little 
cemetery at Wilson, N.C., as beneath the shade of the 
beautiful elms of his own native State." Sergeants 
George W. Young and Charles H. Holland, Corporals 
Loring A. Chase and Elisha G. Scudder and John H. B. 
Kent, as a committee of the company, say, " We feel that 
we have lost a kind friend, a loving companion, a brave 
officer ; and we shall ever revert to his memory with 
feelings of affectionate pride." Mrs. D. S. Eichardson 
writes from Wilson, N.C., to her brother, J. F. Stone of 
Winchester, Mass., " He was very cheerful and hopeful to 
the last. Yesterday he jocularly remarked, that he would 
soon be well enough to go home, and may be return to 
fight again." S. S. Satchwell, surgeon in charge at the 
hospital, writes, " He has had every comfort that could 
alleviate the sufferings, or add to the well-being, of a 
wounded man. I have done unto him as I would that 

4 



26 



others should do unto me." I cannot refrain from observ- 
ing, that a letter of cordial gratitude, from the family at 
home, has been written to Dr. Satchwell ; the whole tone 
and language of which must not only delight him, but 
serve that cause of truth, country, and humanity, which 
will survive all the distractions of our strife. In a com- 
munication dated Newbern, N.C., Nov. 14, 1862, Hobart 
himself gives an account of operations in the field, through 
seven days' marching and skirmishing, which overflows 
with the kindness, courage, domestic affectionateness, 
gentle-hearted pleasantry, and deep trust, native to a 
heart from whose very stock nothing seemed able to grow 
but love and frankness, confidence and faithfulness, reso- 
lution for every task, and expectation of the good fortune 
which we believe he has, beyond all earthly experience, 
received at the hand and in the kingdom of God. I quote, 
lastly, from a very brief report of his speech, on Thanks- 
giving Day, at Newbern : — 

" After all had eateu to their iuJividual satisfaction, quiet 
prevailed ; and the intellectual part of the entertainment began 
with a few opening remarks from tlie cai)tain. After ho had 
concluded, the toastmaster gave as the first regular toast, ' The 
day we celebrate.' Responded to liy Corporal Ilobart, who 
made some well-chosen remarks. After thanking them for the 
honor paid him by being the first called upon on this happy 
occasion, he expressed his strong desire to speak, but declared he 
was too full for utterance. During his speech, he made reference 
to former occasions ' of the day we now celebrate ; and, in remem- 
brance of them, we all feel a certain degree of loneliness as we 
picture to ourselves the scene of the family gathering at home, 
seated around the social board. "We look still closer. The usual 
happy features of our fathers assume a sterner, sadder look ; in 
the anxious countenance of our mothers we plainly discern the 
teardrop starting ; ^vhile the cheerful face of our sisters wears an 
expression of subdued sorrow. The usual gayety has given place 



27 



to a spirit of sadness. "We cast our eyes aroiinfl till tliey rest on 
the vacant seat. Here we pause. That empty chair speaks 
volumes. The cause of this change is apparent ; and we turn 
aside our heads to conceal the emotions we are unable to control.' 
In closing, he offered the following : ' Our friends at home, — God 
bless them ! ' which was received in a manner which proved that 
the words of the speaker had aroused the tender feelings of his 
listeners." 

He has gone, as we hope to follow him, where there are 
no sad looks, because no empty seats save those awaiting 
us, at the Great Thanksgiving. 

I know North Carolina is far from being the Egj^pt of 
the Confederate States ; but the Christian cherishing of our 
friend, in that still rebel region, falls as a sunbeam, of no 
solitary manifestation, into the vision of peace. I confess 
my yearning for the South. If she will put away the 
plague of her heart, that alone hurts her, she may yet add 
a peculiar glory to that nation of the future which we look 
for on these shores. 

It is sometimes said, that New England would make a 
sufiScient community all by herself. On a pinch of neces- 
sity, by providential decree, she might. Who of us, her 
children, does not own and honor her traits ? But, thrifty, 
conscientious, philosophical, benevolent, and devout as she 
is, solitary she would be in danger of being cold. 

In the nation, which God means shall survive and not be 
cast away, we need, for a magnificent integrity, the South- 
ern heart. It is a narrow conceit, that we should be better 
without it. We want, for our just balance, all the moral 
climates ; something of the tropic as well as the temperate 
zone. Who, that heard Gen. Hamilton, our noble Texan, 
speak, but felt the preciousness, as one element in the 
public mind, of that temperament, not limited to any lati- 
tude, — for it was constitutionally conspicuous in Daniel 



28 



Webster, — which is, liowever, more common under the 
warmer lines ? For the perfection of a great people, we 
must have the spontaneous natures, raised to their spiritual 
lieight by central seas of fire, as well as the souls of equal 
grandeur but calmer righteousness, that repose on settled 
principles and long-established conclusions as foundations 
of rock. The quality of passion, regenerate, sanctified, 
and subject to the law of duty, must be mixed with intel- 
lect, commerce, and the moral sense, for the completion of 
a country or a race. Let us not aim to reproduce Athens 
and Sparta in any new rivalry; let us decline and resist 
the modern secession ; and not only for Union, but for 
Unity, let us strive. What means the strange confidence 
of our success, that visits every generous heart, but the 
whispered promise of the spirit of all goodness and 
truth ? 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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